US, China propose tough sanctions against NKorea

FILE - In this undated file photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 in Tokyo by the Korea News Service, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a consultative meeting with officials in the fields of state security and foreign affairs at undisclosed location in North Korea. U.N. diplomats say the United States and China have reached agreement on a new sanctions resolution to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test. (AP Photo/Korean Central New
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FILE - In this undated file photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 in Tokyo by the Korea News Service, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a consultative meeting with officials in the fields of state security and foreign affairs at undisclosed location in North Korea. U.N. diplomats say the United States and China have reached agreement on a new sanctions resolution to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test. (AP Photo/Korean Central New
/ AP

FILE - In this Wed., Feb. 13, 2013 file photo, a South Korean protester shouts slogans near an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during an anti-North Korea rally to denounce North Korea's nuclear test in Seoul, South Korea, a day after North Korea defied U.N. warnings with a nuclear test. The Cold War still rages in North Korea, and enemy No. 1 is the United States, which Pyongyang blames for making necessary its much-condemned drive to build nuclear weapons. North Korea’s latest nucle— AP

FILE - In this Wed., Feb. 13, 2013 file photo, a South Korean protester shouts slogans near an effigy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during an anti-North Korea rally to denounce North Korea's nuclear test in Seoul, South Korea, a day after North Korea defied U.N. warnings with a nuclear test. The Cold War still rages in North Korea, and enemy No. 1 is the United States, which Pyongyang blames for making necessary its much-condemned drive to build nuclear weapons. North Korea’s latest nucle
/ AP

UNITED NATIONS 
The world moved closer to punishing North Korea for its latest nuclear test Tuesday as the United States introduced a draft resolution, backed by China, with new sanctions aimed at reining in Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and preventing their export to other countries.

In response, Pyongyang threatened to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.

The draft resolution would subject North Korea "to some of the toughest sanctions imposed by the United Nations," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters. She called the scope of the sanctions "exceptional."

The proposed resolution, worked out by Rice and China's U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong over the last three weeks, reflects the growing anger of the U.N.'s most powerful body at North Korea's defiance of three previous sanctions resolutions that demanded a halt to all nuclear and missile tests.

This one pledges additional measures if Pyongyang keeps ignoring the council with new tests, Rice said. North Korea's latest test was in February.

With the support of China, the North's closest ally, the proposed resolution is not expected to face serious opposition, though council members will send it to their capitals for review.

"We hope for unanimous adoption later this week," Rice said.

The draft resolution targets for the first time the illicit activities of North Korean diplomats, the country's illicit banking relationships and its illegal transfers of bulk, Rice said. It also adds new travel restrictions.

Hours before the U.N. meeting, and as word emerged of the U.S.-China proposal, Pyongyang threatened to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.

Any fresh international sanctions are certain to infuriate North Korea, which has claimed the right to build nuclear weapons to deter alleged U.S. aggression. Citing the U.S.-led push for sanctions, the Korean People's Army Supreme Command on Tuesday warned of "surgical strikes" meant to unify the divided Korean Peninsula and of an indigenous, "precision nuclear striking tool."

Hours after North Korea carried out its third atomic blast on Feb. 12, all 15 council members approved a press statement condemning the nuclear test and pledging further action. The swift, unanimous response set the stage for a fourth round of sanctions.

The sanctions have been aimed at trying to derail the country's rogue nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. In addition to barring North Korea from testing or using nuclear or ballistic missile technology, they also ban it from importing or exporting material for these programs.

North Korea's neighbors and the West condemn the North's efforts to develop long-range nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States as a serious threat to Northeast Asia's delicate security and a drain on the precious resources that could go to North Korea's largely destitute people.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a response to U.S. hostility that dates back to the Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war.

North Korea says Washington and others are going beyond mere economic sanctions and expanding into blunt aggression and military acts.